Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025
Good Morning! In the news today: We look at the visit to Coastal Georgia of a Democratic candidate for governor, an office Republicans have locked down in the state for more than two decades, and at another Georgian with a famous last name announcing his candidacy for elected office. Finally, we note seven things for your radar. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com.
NEWS: POLITICS
‘Special interests’
Jason Esteves, a candidate for governor in next year’s elections, spent the weekend in the Democratic Party strongholds of Chatham and Liberty counties shaking hands, making promises, and trying to advance a message he hopes will bring his party success in 2026.
“Georgia deserves a governor that’s going to put people ahead of the politics. Whether it’s in Washington, D.C. or in Atlanta, Georgia, know that I’m someone that’s going to put you ahead of the special interests,” Esteves, a state senator, told a crowd of about 50 people in Sandfly on Sunday, The Current’s Lily Belle Poling reports.
Esteves, who represents parts of both Douglas County and Fulton County in the legislature’s upper chamber, stressed that attracting young voters outside Georgia’s capital is essential to his hope of victory in a state that hasn’t put a Democrat in the governor’s mansion for more than two decades.
“I want to make sure that our young people understand how I will make sure that they have a pathway to success, not based on luck, but based on hard work, based on merit,” he said.
NEWS: POLITICS
Legacy candidate
Leaning heavily on his connection to a fabled Georgian with the same last name, former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley has entered the race for the Republican nomination to take on U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, in next year’s elections.
A two-minute launch video released Monday opens with the 57-year-old Dooley striding across an empty football practice field in Athens and reflecting on the influence of his late father, former University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.
“Being on the sidelines of a football game, I watched him roll up his sleeves and work hard and have respect for everybody he encountered. He always followed through, and it taught me to do the same,” the younger Dooley says in the voice over. “To me, those are Georgia values.”
With Dooley formally announcing his candidacy on Monday, the contest for the Republican nomination is, for the moment, a three-way race between the moderate conservative Dooley on the one hand, and two self-declared “MAGA warriors,” U.S. Reps. Earl “Buddy” Carter of St. Simons and Mike Collins of Jackson, on the other, The Current’s Craig Nelson reports.
NEWS: EDUCATION
7 things for your radar
- As school doors open across Coastal Georgia: The Current’s Domonique King examines the effects of Liberty County school system’s ban on mobile phone use during school hours, and The Current’s Tyler Davis looks at high school seniors opting for trade school over college.
- Also on the education front: A special state Senate study committee on “combating chronic absenteeism in schools” holds its first public hearing in Macon on Thursday.
- More study committees: The House Study Committee on Gaming in Georgia held its first public meeting in Watkinsville on July 28. The House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Election Procedures will hold a public meeting in Savannah on September 18, one of six meetings it has scheduled across the state. For a list of other Senate study committees, click here. For a list of other House study committees, click here.
- Back in business: Midway, in Liberty County, gets its own fire department again, The Current’s Robin Kemp reports.
- More time: Gov. Brian Kemp extends the deadline for a commission reviewing the indictment of Guyton City Council member Theodore Hamby to issue its report.
- Public records: A Cobb County official, Connie Taylor, is indicted on charges of destroying public records and violating her oath of office after she allegedly directs an employee to delete government emails and financial records in response to an Open Records Request.
- Insurance rate increases: Insurers are seeking large 2026 rate increases for Affordable Care Act marketplace plans, the coverage known as Obamacare, The Wall Street Journal and health-research nonprofit KFF report. The largest ACA plans in Georgia, as well as in Washington state and Rhode Island, are all looking for premiums to surge more than 20%. U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff sounds a warning.
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